Fragile
by xginnyx11
Summary: Nobody is broken, they are just fragile. It is up to James Potter II to show them this and he will, starting with the girl he has loved since he was five, to his cousins, to his parents, to everyone he meets.
1. Chapter 1

Today was a beautiful day. Light streamed through the fragile, floral-printed curtains and reflected onto the white, plastic hospital bed. On top of the bed, was a woman as fragile as the curtains, if not more. Her skin was covered in wrinkles and a sprinkling of yellow bruises. Her cracked lips were closed shut, as well as her eyes. Her long, dark eyelashes sprinkled over them lightly. She wore a white hospital gown and her hospital bracelet was a few days away from wearing away.

The room was dreary and depressing. The woman often kept her eyes closed in order to imagine a happier, nicer place than the room she currently resided in.

A light knock on the door alerted the frail woman on the bed from her current daydream, and she struggled to sit up in her bed.

"Hey, relax," said a wonderfully, melodic voice from the doorway.

The old woman looked up and smiled. "I thought you were the nurse coming to bother me again," she replied, her voice remarkably strong for a woman so frail.

The girl laughed lightly and skipped over to chair from the corner and dragged it towards the center. Her brown hair was down today and the slight curls bounced lightly again her back. She wore a simple, white dress today but it seemed to be made out of sunshine.

"So how are you?" The girl asked, politely.

"No better, no worse. The usual. How about you? Excited to be heading back to school, eh?" The woman replied, her face still lit up with a smile.

"Of course, you know how much I love school. I'm going to head down to Diagon Alley tomorrow to get some supplies and then the Hogwarts Express leaves the day after that. I'm afraid this will have to be my last visit. I will come and see you whenever possible, though," the girl replied, her blue eyes twinkling brightly even in the dingy lighting.

"Don't worry about visiting me. Your letters are enough. I love hearing what you're up to," the woman replied, sighing to herself.

"I'm sorry that you're stuck here. I'm going to try and talk to the nurses about letting you come home for Christmas," the girl apologized.

"Good luck with that," said the woman, chuckling to herself.

"Hey! You wait! I will get you out of here. I promised, right?" The girl replied, smiling brightly once more. This girl was just full of smiles.

"That you did. I know how you are about your promises," responded the woman, chuckling again to herself at the memory of their pinky promise they had made a year or so ago.

Before any of them could say anything else, a knock sounded on the other side of the door, and it creaked open to reveal two nurses.

"I'm sorry to cut your short visit even shorter, but your grandmother has some tests to get done and you're going to need to leave," said the shorter of the two nurses.

"Okay. If she needs the tests, I will leave. I will write you soon, Grandma. Stay strong for Mum, okay?" The girl asked, moving the chair back to its lonely spot in the corner and preparing to leave.

"Always," the woman replied, lying back and shutting her eyes right as the door shut once more and all the sunshine was sucked back out of the room again as the girl left once more.

**

"Get your fucking ass out of bed, you lazy twat!" Lily Potter screeched, her face becoming as red as her bright red hair, just like her mother. She placed her hands on her hips impatiently and kicked the edge of his bed with her pointed boot.

"What is this disgusting smell?" Rose Weasley questioned, her face crinkling in disgust as she entered the room behind Lily.

"I think it's the moldy sandwich he has stashed under his bed." Albus Potter answered.

"Actually, it's a slice of cake from Charlie's wedding," James Potter answered groggily and with his face buried in his pillow. Rose rolled her eyes and Lily made a disgusted face as she kicked a pair of shorts off the ground to reveal some type of fungus all over the floor.

"Seriously, James. Stop being a lazy arse and get up. You haven't gotten out of bed before noon all summer. You can't possible be tired," Lily said as she walked over to open the shades in a further attempt to awaken James. Light streamed in through the window, but this didn't make him get up. James simply yanked the covers further over his head.

"You're hopeless," Rose said, with her hand covering her nose to block out the stench.

Lily plopped down on the edge of his bed and started bouncing. The bed creaked under her weight a bit, but Lily didn't stop. She just kept bouncing. James groaned and finally emerged from underneath the sheets, his hair sticking up in a million directions.

"Alright, alright. Don't get your panties in a bunch. I'm going to get dressed and then I'll be right down," James said, shuffling towards his dresser half asleep.

"Don't forget to comb your hair," Rose joked.

"You should consider cleaning your room too. It's a mess, mate," Al suggested, right before he, Rose, and Lily walked out of James' room and closed the door with a slight slam.

James rolled his eyes. It wasn't _that_ bad, was it? Yeah, actually, it was. Ginny had completely given up on cleaning his room years ago. The floor was completely covered with dirty clothes, socks, shoes, drinks, letters, quills, Quidditch strategies, whatever else you could possibly think of – it's there. The curtains on the windows were torn down in anger when he trashed his O.W.L.S. There was a hole in one of his closet doors from where Albus tried to punch James for sleeping with his girlfriend. There was a dark stain on the carpet nearest his head from when Rose vomited after a particularly interesting game of spin the bottle. There were lipstick stains all over his dirty mirror, from all the Muggle girls he had brought home over the summers and requested they leave their marks. He had posters of Muggle girls and a few Quidditch posters around the room, with food stains on them somehow. James hated his room, really, but couldn't be arsed cleaning it.

There was one thing he would never ever dare to change, though. The "James and Delaney forever" that was carved into his night table late one night when the two of them were getting pissed and hanging out in his room, which is why James ended up spelling his own name wrong.

They were just friends, though, which stung James to the core. Delaney had her oh-so-perfect boyfriend, Scorpius Malfoy. Fucking twat. Of all the people in the world who could possibly be her boyfriend instead of him, it had to be a Malfoy. Just his luck.

James was instantly in a bad mood after being reminded of this. He was tired of being considered a player – good for one night, maybe a few, but never full-time. What was the use of being a Potter if the girl you loved didn't love you back?

James was alerted back to the reality of his sad life with an annoying tapping on the window. Speak of the devil. This was Delaney's owl, Twizzler. He opened the window and grabbed the letter off his leg and began to read.

_James,_

_Meet me at our spot at Diagon Alley today at noon? I want to talk._

_Delaney_

James smiled to himself, tucked the letter into his drawer full of her letters, and scribbled a quick response back to attach back to Twizzler.

_Laney,_

_I'll be there. ._

_James _

_**_

"Cover for me," James said, attempting to persuade Al.

"Yeah, sure, whatever. She's too busy fussing with Lily anyways," Al responded, rolling his eyes.

James nodded in thanks and scurried out of the store.

He rounded the corner excitedly, his eyes lighting up at the mere prospect of getting to stare at Delaney for an hour or so. He had really missed that hobby of his. It even beat out playing Quidditch and wanking. That was saying something.

There she was.

Her long, dark brown hair was pulled into a low ponytail. Her deep blue eyes sparkled in the light, but they appeared sad today. She had her 'I've been thinking' outfit on today. As pathetic as it was, James had memorized almost all of her outfits and gave them all titles. This one consisted of jeans and a beige blouse with her favorite necklace. She had her comfy boots on and everything, and minimal make-up. She looked beautiful, minus the dark bags under her eyes and the tears that seemed to have stained her cheeks. He wanted to hug her really badly but decided against it.

"Hi," James said, quietly, as to not startle her.

"How good do you have to be considered a good person?" Delaney blurted, not even bothering to say hello back. She was definitely in one of her moods. James sat down next to her and placed his hand right next to her so that they brushed past each other the tiniest bit, sending tingles up his arms.

"Fuck," James responded.

"What kind of response is that?" Delaney questioned, narrowing her eyes at me.

"Fuck is a response for everything," James replied, smiling to himself at his cleverness.

"Not this time. I'm just so...I don't know. Grandma's isn't getting any better and she knows it. How do you tell someone they're going to die? How do you talk to them after you're certain that they know?" Delaney questioned.

"I don't know. You just have to have as much fun as you can while she's here, right?" James suggested.

"She's in a hospital. What kind of fun can you have in there? Plus, we're going to back to Hogwarts. I won't even see her," She responded, frowning.

"It'll be okay, Delaney. She knows how much you care about her," He offered, trying to cheer her up even if it was only slightly.

"But maybe that's not enough. Do you think I'm a good person, James?" Delaney asked, lowering her eyes.

"The very goodest," James responded, smiling.

"Goodest isn't a word," Delaney replied, smiling too. He always managed to cheer her up in some way or another.

"I'm fucking rich as hell. Do you think I care about stupid things like grammar?" James said, sending her another smile to let her know he was kidding. Sort of.

"Oh yes, of course. I'm sorry I forgot I was in the presence of a God. Forgive me, oh wise one!" She responded happily, pretending to bow down to James.

James laughed good-naturely and his hand accidently brushed against Delaney's. He jumped slightly as a tingle flew up his arm.

They both pretended not to notice and sat in silence for a bit. James knew he wasn't meant to talk right now. Delaney was thinking and his job, as the best friend, was to let her do that and offer minimal, shitty advice.

"So, how's Scorpius?" James asked, awkwardly.

"He's okay. I'm getting kind of bored of him, to be honest. It's not like we love each other, we just love snogging each other," Delaney responded, shrugging her shoulders.

"Just because he doesn't love you the way you want, doesn't mean he doesn't love you in his own way, you know," James said, moving his hand closer to Delaney's once more, trying to offer up a hint that he secretly loved her more than anything.

"Remind me why you don't have a girlfriend again?" Delaney asked, seriously for once, he thought.

"Because I'm too sexy for them all," James said, completely ruining any chance of a serious mood with that comment.

Delaney laughed and tugged on his arm. "Let's go for a walk."

*

_Author's Note: Er okay, no idea what I'm doing with this particular chapter but hopefully it'll be better in the future. I have lots of little plot ideas in store for later, just not so good with actually writing it. Anyways, let me know what you think and I hope you liked it! xoxo_

_- Kara_


	2. Chapter 2

"Damn!" Delaney cursed, as her bag slipped out of her hands and the contents spilled all over the ground. "Land me a hand, will you?" She asked, directing it towards James who was standing beside her silently.

Land her a hand? How could he do that if she was still holding one of his? James stood there gaping, not believing his luck. James and Delaney had held hands before, of course. But they were either completely out of it or it was when they tugged each other places and their hands only touched for a moment or so. But it had been a few minutes of walking, and his hand was still in hers. He didn't want to let go. Delaney just rolled her eyes at him, and picked up the rest of it, but still didn't let go of his hand either. She liked the feeling of his strong hand wrapped around hers.

Since James didn't appear like he was going to help Delaney out, or move anytime in the next ten years or so, another pair of hands bent down to help Delaney. They were rough, big, and definitely hands of another man. James glared down at them and then shifted his focus up to the face they belonged to.

"Thanks," Delaney said, looking up to thank the stranger right when James looked up at him as well.

They both froze for a moment.

It was Scorpius.

"You're welcome," Scorpius muttered back, staring down at their hands which were still linked together. Delaney followed his eyes, as if she had forgotten where her other hand was, and upon seeing it, let go immediately. It didn't seem like a big deal to either of them really, but this was Scorpius. He overreacted to everything.

"I didn't know you were coming up here today," Delaney said, awkwardly staring down at the ground instead of looking at Scorpius.

"Didn't you get my owl?" Scorpius asked.

"No," Delaney said, her eyes still looking at the ground. She was definitely lying. She could never make eye contact when she lied.

"I'm just going to go and look at...some new Quidditch...things," James said, giving them a chance to discuss whatever issues they seemed to be having. He really didn't think a hand-holding was that important, so there must have been other issues. Delaney always came to James with his problems, but she tried to steer clear of her boy problems. They always got a bit awkward and James got jealous, though he tried not to show it. He was too proud to do that. So, James slinked away silently into the Quidditch store and sighed loudly. He was safe.

"Mr. Potter! It's great to see you again!" Cried the newest owner of the store, Mr. Berry, emerging from behind a pile of Quidditch strategy books. His gray hair stuck up in strange peaks and his robes didn't even reach his ankles with all the rips and tears in them. Many people thought he was insane, which was probably true, but James didn't mind. It meant the store had more products for him. With a family as big as his own, he was tired of sharing things.

"Hi Mr. Berry, have anything new to show me?" James asked, wandering aimlessly around the store.

"'Fraid not. You have the best we have in store," Mr. Berry said, before sinking down onto the floor as he began to sing to himself as he often did. James laughed quietly to himself and walked towards the window to look at gloves, just in case they had any good deals. His current ones were getting a bit worn out. He was distracted when he saw Delaney waving her arms around angrily in front of Scorpius.

He knew it was really none of his business, but his curiosity got the best of him. James cracked open the door a bit to eavesdrop.

"This again Scorpius? James is my best mate. I've known him for ages. He knows me better than I do and I like talking to him. So what if I held his hand for two seconds or whatever it was. It's a friend thing, Scorpius! I don't expect you to understand the concept of friends since you don't have any, but some of us do!," Delaney said, rather loudly, further drawing attention to herself, but she didn't even seem to mind. Her cheeks flushed red with anger and her arms continued to flail around. James smiled. She had a tendency to talk with her hands, especially because she knew how much it bothered him. He hadn't thought it made the conversation anymore interesting, but right now it was helping immensely. He knew he should be worried about her, and sad that they're fighting, but he wasn't. James was incredibly happy.

"I never said I had a problem with you two being friends! But why do you feel like you can never tell me any of your problems? We have to be honest with each other, Delaney," Scorpius said.

"I'm not lying to you. I'm just not telling you every little detail about my life to you. This is all bloody bullocks. You only did this to make Rose jealous and because I was good for a snog. You don't care about me," Delaney said back to him, her voice and eyes full of disgust.

"Don't be ridiculous! I do care about you," Scorpius responded, purposely ignoring the comment about Rose. He didn't think anyone noticed them those few times last year...

"No, you don't. You're just saying that because you want a snog. I'm not in the mood to deal with you or this right now. I'll talk to you at school or on the train. Not here," Delaney said, turning on her heel and stomping off.

James let Scorpius chase after her and slid downwards on the wall outside the store and began singing quietly to himself. At this rate, he was going to turn out exactly like Mr. Berry. James was unsure if this was a good or a bad thing.

"Are you singing Celestina Warbeck, James?"

"Don't tell. It'll ruin my bad boy image," James replied, smirking at his favorite cousin, Rose Weasley, who was standing over him with a smile on her face.

"Nana Molly would be pleased," Rose said, laughing and sitting down beside James.

"You stole my cauldron, but you can't have my heaaaaaart," sang James quietly, causing Rose to burst out into further laughter.

"You charmed the heart outta meee," Rose sang back, causing them to smile like complete goons.

"What are the other songs again?" James asked, puzzled.

"Who knows," Rose said, smiling brightly and leaning down to put her head on James' shoulder.

"So," James continued awkwardly.

"So," Rose repeated back. "Looks like you forgot to brush your hair."

"I gave up trying to brush my hair years ago, Rose. Bloody Potter hair cannot be tamed," James responded, laughing.

"At least you don't have the obnoxious Weasley red hair combined with the famous Hermione Granger-Weasley's bushy hair," Rose commented, motioning to her red, bushy hair which she had attempted to pull back in a ponytail.

"Better than having that hideous blond Malfoy hair," James replied, never missing a chance to diss the Malfoy family. It was another one of his favorite hobbies.

Rose laughed, "I suppose you're right. Delaney doesn't seem to mind it, though," she said, both of them cringing at the thought of Delaney and Scorpius together.

"You didn't seem to mind either when you were shagging him last year," James said, joking, but Rose immediately tensed. Originally, Lily was the only one Rose told about the whole thing, but things got a bit out of control one day in the common room. James had been snogging the daylights out of some random girl in hopes Delaney would get jealous, and Hugo had asked Lily to control her sibling. Lily had laughed and replied back that he was the one who needed to control his sibling. At least hers wasn't shagging a Malfoy. Hugo's face grew red as anything, greatly resembling Uncle Ron, and he noticed Rose wasn't in the common room. He ran up the stairs and stole the Marauder's Map from James' trunk to check if they were together. They were in the Room of Requirement, so their names did not appear on the map. Hugo waited for Rose until three in the morning, when she finally traipsed in, looking like a right mess.

Hugo screamed at her so loudly that night it seemed all of Hogwarts had heard. Either that, or they found out from someone who had, as it spread all around the school the next day. Rose and Scorpius didn't meet up again, apparently. That was no surprise after the loud howler Ron had sent her the next morning.

"Shut up, you tosser. At least I don't have a picture of him under my pillow for special occasions," Rose teased back, referring to the picture of Delaney making a kissy face at the camera he had stashed under his pillow.

Rose laughed loudly and James knew their was no point in denying it, so he laughed too. It felt good to laugh. Laughter was always said to be the medicine for everything, but James didn't think so. He saw it as the best way to mask away pain and feelings all together. That's not fixing anything, that's just ignoring it. But James was like Delaney today. He didn't want to deal with it.

**

Delaney pumped her legs extra hard, trying to gain as much distance away from Scorpius as possible. She snuck into the closest store she could find after she rounded the corner and out of his sight. Breathing heavily, she tried to calm herself.

But, where the bloody hell was she? Delaney looked around. The wooden floor was shining brightly in the light, like it had just been shined. There were several old, rickety tables spread out around the room. Some were even missing some legs, and looked about to tip over. There were quite a few shelves on the walls too, with the same shiny, dark wood as the floor. Across these shelves and tables were clocks. Every type of clock that possibly exists was in this room. Some were new and modern, while others looked older than Delaney's grandmother. Delaney closed the door behind her, causing the door to creak and announce her presence.

"Hello, may I help you?" A man asked from behind the counter. He looked fresh out of Hogwarts, with his shiny brown hair and blue eyes, and relaxed attitude. Delaney smiled. Attractive boys always made her day better.

"Unless you have a clock that tells me how to fix the mess that my life is, you can't. I'm only in here to hide from someone," Delaney said. Why not be honest? It wasn't like she was planning on seeing this man again.

"Well I'm afraid our shipment of life fixing clocks doesn't arrive until next week," The man joked back, and then added, "Perhaps I could still help, though. It gets pretty dull in here."

Delaney laughed. He was kind of cute. Maybe he could help. James had never been good with advice, but he was a good listener. Right now, she needed advice. So why not ask this random attractive stranger?

"Alright, sure. Should we...take a seat?" Delaney asked, a bit awkwardly. The man nodded and lead her over to a small coach that was hidden behind the mass of tables and clocks.

***

"Elizabeth, your mother is coming to see you!"

A woman with dark brown hair and piercing blue eyes blinked in confusion, unsure if that comment was directed at her or not. She couldn't remember her name. Maybe it was Elizabeth. She wasn't sure. But that wasn't new. She wasn't sure about a lot of things. Like her favorite color or her age.

She scanned the room worriedly, trying to figure out where she was. There was a bright yellow couch shoved in the corner of the room covered with ripped pillows and cushions. There were no windows, and the only real source of light in the room was coming from a small lamp in the opposite corner. She shifted around on the bed she was sitting upon, causing the springs to dig into the back of her thighs. The woman jumped up away from the pain, and straightened the white gown she was wearing. Her feet felt cold. She had no socks and no shoes. Where had they gone?

The woman bent down to see if her socks and shoes had slid under the bed right as the door opened. A woman with bright curly, red hair was wheeling an elderly woman inside the room. The woman looked absolutely ancient with all of her wrinkles and bruises.. The dark-haired woman, after realizing her shoes were not under the bed, squinted at the elderly woman, trying her best to recognize her.

"Hello, Elizabeth," the elderly woman greeted, smiling at her.

The woman didn't reply. She just continued to stare blankly back at the woman. The red-haired woman pushed the wheelchair in the center of the room and then hurried out of the room.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" The woman replied at last, causing the elderly woman to laugh.

"Well, you lived in my stomach for nine months, so I would sure hope so!" The woman said back, barking in laughter. The dark-haired woman blinked again in confusion and didn't respond. She couldn't remember where she lived, but she was sure it was not in this woman's stomach. That was just bizarre.

"My name is Laura. I'm your mother," the elderly woman clarified.

"Oh, and who am I? Am I Elizabeth?"

"Yes. You're Elizabeth. Do you remember anything at all? Your daughter? Your husband? Magic? Harry Potter? Any of it ring a bell?" Laura asked, though she was quite sure she already knew the answer.

"I don't remember anything at all," Elizabeth replied sadly.

**Author's Note:** I was hoping to get this chapter up absolutely ages ago, but I couldn't think of how to end the chapter and ended up editing a lot of things. Hopefully it's not too bad. Let me know what you think :) Also, I take no credits for the "lyrics" Rose and James were singing. I looked it up and those showed up as two of Celestina Warbeck's songs.


	3. Chapter 3

Today was just as beautiful as the day before. This time, however, sunlight streamed through different curtains. These ones were whites ones in perfect condition that danced across the floor with the slight breeze that was coming through the open windows. The floor was of dark, shiny mahogany and matched the ruby red queen bed in the center of the room. There was a giant mahogany dresser and mirror, along with a nice regal-looking rug spread across the floor nearest the giant mahogany desk. That was to be expected of course. This room had been designed by the famous Hermione Granger.

Rose was not sitting in her perfect, queen-like bed, or her giant desk, and not even by the mirror. She was sitting cross-legged in the only empty corner of the room with mascara, leftover from the night before, streaming down her pretty face. Today she was going back to Hogwarts. Normally Rose would be excited by this. This place was much more a home than this antique mansion her mother had created. Not to mention she could see her friends a lot more. She was dreading the homework and exams, naturally, but she was dreading seeing Scorpius more than anything. Delaney and Scorpius hadn't gotten together until the summer so she wasn't entirely sure how she was going to cope with seeing them being all happy and coupley together. She didn't think she could take it.

The tears continued to stream down her face, and Rose felt the mask she was constantly wearing in front of everyone washing away with her mascara and sinking into the depths of the floor. She closed her eyes and lied herself flat down on the cold floor, the tears still spilling down her face silently. The coolness of the floor brushed against her cheek, punishing herself further. It was the exact opposite of the warm feeling of Scorpius' hand in hers, his warm arms wrapped around her in a tight embrace, his warm lips pressed against hers, his warm flesh against her beneath the cool sheets. Shit, she cursed to herself. Suddenly the coolness of the floor felt like the cool sheets in the Room of the Requirement she and Scorpius had often found themselves tangled up in.

Rose sat up immediately and smacked her head against the wall, as if that would destroy the memories burning inside her. She groaned slightly upon impact and slouched back into her corner once more. She took a small sip from the bottle next to her and shoved it back under the bed. Rose glanced towards the clock, making sure she did not have to leave quite yet. Rose suddenly wished she hadn't. It was 9:43. Just her luck. Thoughts of Scorpius flew back into her mind, not they had ever left to begin with. This was the time when he said he loved her for the very first time.

It was a Sunday morning and Rose had woken up in the Room of Requirement next to Scorpius for the first time. He was still asleep but he was holding her hand beneath the blankets and her head was resting lightly on his bare chest. Rose had rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and reached down to pick up her clothes, but Scorpius had woken up. He had smirked at her in his usual Scorpius way and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her close again, and whispering something into her ear.

"I love you."

Rose bit her tongue until she drew blood, begging her mind to stop thinking about him. She couldn't help it. He was honestly her life. For months it had been Scorpius, Scorpius, Scorpius, Scorpius. She couldn't stop herself. It was still all about him, but now only memories and sadness. Rose didn't want to put another name in his place, but at the same time she didn't want his name either. So she played this game with herself.

Rose took another swig from the bottle stashed under her bed and let another tear fall. That's all she had done all summer. Cry over him. Get drunk. Go to parties. Pretend she cared. Something in Rose sparked, and she stood up and staggered over to her dresser. She picked up the photo of the two of them out on the Quidditch pitch, laughing and smiling, his arm around her shoulder. She watched him lean in and plant a kiss on her cheek. Rose watched it again, thinking she felt something hit her cheek as he kissed her cheek in the portrait. It was just a tear, Rose realized.

She picked up the portrait, one she had treasured for so long and debated for just as long as to whether she should bring it with her or not. She had her answer. Rose walked towards her trunk, opened it up, leaned down, and the turned up at the last second and threw the picture against the wall. Rose had gone over her usual limit of alcohol, having been up all night thinking and not thinking about Scorpius, so she ended up missing the wall. The portrait slammed into the mirror. Rose was so angry that it turned out to be a much more powerful throw than intended. The mirror shattered, bits of glass spilling across the floor, and stinging Rose's feet. She didn't move. She just stood there and stared at her broken reflection in the broken mirror.

She was feeling adventurous yesterday and went to see a muggle hairdresser. They dyed her hair a lovely auburn color and gave her some straightening treatment. She thought that maybe if she looked different, she'd feel different. She didn't. She felt the same empty, broken feeling that had appeared when Scorpius left. There was a hollow look in her eyes that she couldn't seem to get rid of. It seemed only Scorpius could make it go away.

"Rose! It's time to go!" Hermione's voice shouted from downstairs. Silently, Rose fixed the mirror with the flick of her wand and applied a fresh coat of mascara before heading downstairs. Her mask was back on.

Delaney tapped her foot impatiently against the cold linoleum floor of the hospital. She was running late, very late, and this woman was not helping her. The receptionist had long, blonde hair that kept falling into her face as she furiously typed mysterious things into the computer. She had ridiculously long nails and bright red lipstick that was smeared all over her teeth. The woman quite obviously had not looked in a mirror this morning. Delaney stopped her nitpicking when the woman finally stopped hacking away at her keyboard and pushed up her glasses further up her nose.

"I'm sorry, what did you say your name was?" The woman asked with a dazed look on her face. Delaney sighed. Naturally, the one day she was running late she had to get the blonde receptionist who couldn't tell her left from her right.

"Delaney. Delaney Peterson. I'm here to see my mother. Her name is Elizabeth," Delaney stated slowly in her best attempt at making the woman understand.

"Is her last name Peterson as well?" She responded, batting her eyelashes annoyingly.

"Yes," Delaney responded, resisting the urge to roll her eye. This was getting a bit ridiculous. "She's been in this very hospital for twenty years, give or take and I've been here more times than I can count."

"Oh, yes. I've heard about her. She's in room 272. Do you need me to show you where that is?" The woman replied, smiling brightly.

"No," Delaney snapped, not being able to be pleasant around this woman anymore. Delaney then turned on her heels and stormed off towards the elevator, her white flip flops slapping loudly against the floor. She knew this hospital by heart. Her mother was a Muggle and so was her Grandmother, which is why they were being kept here instead of St. Mungo's. Delaney wished it were different but the nurses insisted they stayed here. Her mother was too fragile, apparently. Delaney only ever remembered her mother and grandmother living here. She had always stayed with her aunt and knew very little about the proper relationships a daughter was meant to have with a mother or grandmother. It was a bit difficult to have a relationship with your mother if she often could not remember who you were, however

The nurses had called Delaney this morning to alert her that her mother had once again relapsed and couldn't remember anything. It was her job to show up as soon as possible and try to get her mother to understand. Sometimes it would work, sometimes it wouldn't. Delaney would never give up and continued to cling to the small strand of hope that one day her mother would not forget. One day she would remember forever.

A few minutes later, Delaney arrived in front of room 272. The door was ajar and Delaney could hear voices from inside, but to her disappointment, none belonged to her grandmother. She pushed open the door slightly and walked in carefully, not wanting to cause too much of a disturbance. Her mother was known for getting scared easily in her moods.

"Oh good, you're here. We weren't able to make any progress with her, as usual. She's all yours. Let us know if you need anything, okay?" The red-headed nurse asked. Her name was Lauren. She'd worked with her mother ever since she was transferred here all those years ago.

"Will do," Delaney replied, taking Lauren's vacated seat. The springs dug into her, but she ignored it and stared up at her mother who was sitting over on the bed.

Lauren had managed to get Elizabeth's hair in a nice, neat bun on the top of her head and provide her with a new gown and some socks. She was staring at the wall blankly and seemingly unaware of Delaney's presence.

"Hi Elizabeth," Delaney said, deciding to refer to her by her real name rather than mom as she was full aware her mother had forgotten she even had a daughter.

"Oh, hi," She replied, not breaking her intense gaze on the wall.

"Do you remember me?" Delaney asked before standing up and sitting next to her mother on the bed. The bed squeaked a bit with her added weight and Elizabeth looked up into the depths of Delaney's blue eyes, extremely similar to her own.

"No, but Lauren said you come here often to tell me stories. I don't see any books though. Are you going to read me something?" She asked.

Delaney shook her head. "I don't need a book. I have the whole thing memorized."

Delaney spent the next hour explaining the Wizarding World to her mother, as her grandmother had advised in her letter. They were trying a different approach this time. Leave out the personal things for now and simply try and make her understand the basics. It would confuse her too much to explain everything.

Rose swore loudly to herself as she searched the train for a compartment. Why did she have to drink so bloody much? Rose was having difficulty walking straight. This was not part of the plan. She staggered further a bit and slouched against the wall outside a compartment, not wanting to deal with the effort of walking much longer. Surely one of her millions of relatives would come and rescue her soon enough. She put her head down to stop the slight dizzy feeling that had been hanging over her for a while.

"You alright there, princess?" A voice asked. Rose immediately perked up. She could recognize that voice anyway. It was Scorpius.

"Peachy," Rose slurred, ignoring his use of his old nickname that was used just to piss her off. Rose waited for him to nod and then keep heading wherever he was going, but he didn't. Rose was genuinely confused. After they had "broken up" he had spoken three words to her, tops, and that was months ago. They'd gone the whole summer with no words exchanged, though many stares did occur. Now he had said four words to her and appeared to be genuinely concerned.

He raised her eyebrows at her in his Scorpius-like way. "Doesn't look that way."

"Fuck off," Rose muttered, but not really meaning it. Drunk or not drunk she could feel the butterflies dancing around in her stomach and her heat beating a million beats per second from being so close to him. She had forgotten what this felt like and instantly didn't want to let it go.

"C'mon Rosie. You don't want that. Why don't we go and talk in an empty compartment? Things didn't really end well with us and it's a new year. I want to make sure things are good between us, yeah?" Scorpius said, looking like he'd practiced this very speech a million times before. Probably because he had. He hadn't been able to get her out of his head, and not even Delaney could seem to change that. It was driving him mad.

"Mmmf," Rose responded, which Scorpius took as a yes and extended his hand towards her. Rose stared at, unsure whether to take it or not. She gave in and allowed him to pull her up, which was probably a good thing as her balance had basically disappeared. He laughed as she was followed him over to the compartment, tripping over her feet a bit. She plopped down on the seat by the window and Scorpius sat down right next to her and wrapped his arm around her. Rose tensed. What was he doing?

"I've missed you. A lot," Scorpius said, leaning in and whispering it in her ear.

Rose knew this was so wrong. He had a girlfriend. Not only that but she really should stop letting him control her. He'd always been like this. Some days he'd ignore her, other days he'd hold her hand and tickle her until she couldn't breathe. Some days he'd make fun of her to no end and the others he would compliment everything about her. He'd send her so many mixed signals and her mood basically depended on the attention she received from him. It hadn't changed. He could waltz in after what he did and say he missed her, and she'd give in. Rose was a pushover.

Needless to say she did not move away when Scorpius leant in to kiss her. Maybe it was because she was a pushover, maybe it was because she still loved him, maybe it was because she was a drunk. Rose didn't know and didn't care. She closed the gap between them and pressed her lips to his first. She felt him smiling while she kissed her and the whole world seemed to disappear, along with all the bad memories she had of him. She fell into a haze of drunkenness and happiness.

**Author's Note**: I apologize for the lack of James in this chapter. I wanted to focus on Rose and the bits with Delaney's mother and grandmother as they will be more important later. The next chapter will have more James, promise :3 Opinions are always wanted. Thank you for reading xoxo


	4. Chapter 4

James dragged his trunk down the alley, searching for an open compartment or one with familiar faces inside. It was not hard considering he was related to half of the school. James stopped short in front of a compartment about halfway down the hall when he spotted a familiar head of brown hair. He was about to open the door and sit down next to her when he realized that the familiar brunette was currently attached to another familiar head, this one of bright blonde hair. He staggered back immediately, definitely wanting to avoid walking in on their little make-out session. James forced himself to walk away and to not eavesdrop, though it appeared there was not much to eavesdrop as there was no talking occurring. It seemed Scorpius and Delaney had kissed and made up. James ignored the feeling of sadness that seemed to be spreading throughout his body and numbing him and focused on walking. Left. Right. Left. Right.

Caught up in his own thoughts, James collided right into a tall, older Slytherin with shaggy black hair, who glared intensely at James. James was a bit on the short side, though he refused to admit it, but there was no doubt who would win if the Slytherin decided to turn this into a fight. James immediately jumped into the compartment closest to him to avoid making a scene. Slytherins exaggerated everything so it was always best to be safe. James sighed in relief as he slammed the compartment door behind him.

"James, mate, about time!" Called Fred Weasley from the corner of the compartment, standing up to give James his famous Weasley man-hug. James smiled. Maybe today was going to be okay after all.

"Hey!" James greeted, plopping down in the seat next to Fred and across from his younger cousin, Hugo. Hugo leaned over from across the aisle to bump his fist against James' in greeting.

"Sup, dude?" Hugo asked, trying his hardest to sound cool. It was a bit of a phase of his, to turn into some type of stoned gangster. If James had to guess he'd say it started it this summer when his parents picked up more and more hours from work. James thought he did it for attention, but it failed. Hugo was always brooding in his room whenever James went over to their house and never showed at all the parties that everyone went to. They were oblivious parents. They didn't notice Hugo's loneliness or all the weed he had stashed in his room or how much everyone ignored him and him ignoring them back in return. James noticed and always made extra efforts to talk and be nice to Hugo. But it did nothing in the grand scheme of things. Hugo is very closed off and private. It's impossible to break through his walls. Ron and Hermione didn't notice Rose's sadness over Scorpius and how she was channeling it into partying either. James noticed that too and tried to help her but it was useless. It seemed everyone in his life was broken in some way and James has a strong desire to fix them all.

"Not much," James said, a moment or two late, getting lost in his thinking again. It was going to be okay, he thought to himself. Just calm down.

"Find anyone to target this year?" Fred asked curiously.

"What?" James asked, confused. Fred had a tendency to talk a lot and make little sense so the most used word when talking to Fred was almost always what.

"The girl you want to focus on banging this year. Who is it?" Fred clarified, and James gaped at him uncomfortably.

"Do you have to use the word banged? It sounds like I'm just going to use this girl for sex and not really care about her," James said.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Sex is all they are good for anyways. But for your sake, I'll rephrase your question. Do you have any girl in your mind that you would like to fall hopelessly fall in love with and open up to and just become a sappy fool with?" Fred teased. James expected something like this. Fred didn't believe in love and only believed in sex, and he made that clear to almost everyone, even the girls. Hence why he remained single for the majority of the time and received more slaps than anyone else in the school. What an accomplishment, huh?

"Oh, erm," James began awkwardly. It wasn't as if he could tell them the truth – that he was in love with Delaney. So he spat out the first name he thought of, "Tegan Jacobs."

"Real funny, James. I am laughing so hard right now on the inside. Now tell me who it really is," Fred said, looking up at James expectantly. Why did James have to be such a bad liar?

"Erm, I was being serious," James said awkwardly.

"C'mon mate. Tegan is fat and ugly. What could you possibly see in her?" Fred wondered, and Hugo snorted along in agreement. James swore silently to himself. Of all the people to spit out, of course he picked her. She was rather large and her nose was twice the size of the rest of her face and she didn't have the best teeth in the world and rarely brushed her teeth or hair or showered at all, but it could be worse right?

"There are more to people than looks, Fred," James said, actually meaning this but still not wanting to get with Tegan in any way, shape, or form. Delaney was the only one for him in his mind and he was stubborn on keeping it that way.

Fred snorted. "Well, of course there are! I am fully aware of that, but I happen to value looks a lot more than the rest of that bullshit. But I'm a nice person, wouldn't you say? Scratch that, don't answer that. You're going to say no, but I am, okay? So I'm not going to make fun of you. Go tap that ass, James, please. We can turn this into a bet, can't we Hugo?" Fred smirked devilishly and then turned to face Hugo who smirked back a bit.

"Ten Quid he can't get with her," Hugo said, looking James up and down and shaking his head.

"Alrighty then, Fred. Ten quid that he can, and when he does, she'll break some sort of bone on him and not the one down under. Do we have a deal?" Fred said, and Hugo nodded and shook his hand. James swore silently to himself once more. Merlin, what did he just get himself into? This was not going to be pretty.

"I'm going to be right back," James said, standing up and stretching his legs and heading towards the door of the compartment.

"Going to start your mission early?" Fred questioned.

Scorpius bit down slightly on her lip before breaking the kiss to take a breath. Rose giggled and playfully shoved Scorpius up against the wall and kissed him lightly, her hands resting on his chest. Scorpius put one hand on Rose's arse and pulled her closer, deepening the kiss once more. Scorpius' hand grazed the bare skin of Rose's stomach, sending goose bumps up her arm. Her brain wasn't working properly. All she could think of was Scorpius and how much she missed him, and how she never wanted her lips to leave his. Scorpius' hand left her arse and began playing with the hem of her shirt, removing some of the fog from Rose's brain.

"Stop. We're on a bloody train, you wanker," Rose snapped, swatting his arm away and taking a step away from him.

"Sorry, I didn't mean that, it's uh,-" Scorpius began.

"Shut up a moment. My head feels like it is about to explode and the world is starting to spin again," Rose slurred, wobbling slightly on her feet.

Scorpius laughed. "You're such a lightweight. Sit down." He tugged on her elbow gently, as to prevent her from falling over, and dragged her down back to the seats they were previously sitting in.

"Rose - " Scorpius began.

"Shut up. You don't have to go professing your love every second Scorpius. Sometimes it is nice to shut the fuck up and enjoy the silence," Rose said.

"Does kissing count as silence?" Scorpius asked, raising his eyebrows suggestively, like he had done to her so many times before.

"Stop it."

"Stop what? Talking? I'm not good at that. I'm good at kissing, however," Scorpius said, smirking silently.

"Stop this. I worked so hard to get over you Scorpius and now you're messing it all up when I'm drunk and lonely. This isn't fair," Rose said, using all the strength she had not to cry or kiss him. She had always been too sensitive and he got everything he wanted too easily.

"A drunk person never admits they are drunk," Scorpius replied cheekily.

"Whatever. I'm sobering up now and I'm going to go. Come and find me and we'll talk once you're single and I'm sober. I'm not that girl, Scorp. I can be the girl, but not that girl. Remember that," Rose said, and stormed off with only a slight stagger to her step.

Scorpius groaned. How many times had he screwed up things with her now? He'd lost count. He had the whole thing planned out ahead of time, like he'done various times with situations concerning Rose. Too bad Rose never followed the script.

"Hey, can we talk?"

Scorpius suppressed a groan. It was stressful to deal with two girls so close together but he really did need to get this break up out of the way. He smiled and motioned for her to take the seat Rose had just vacated. Play it cool, Scorp. Play it cool.

"Can I be blunt for a moment?" Delaney asked. She had this all planned out thanks to the random guy in the clock shop. It was going to be quick and easy and then Delaney was going to go find James and play exploding snap or something.

"'Course," Scorpius said, praying silently to himself that she was going to break up with him so he wouldn't have to do it. It would be so much easier.

"You were really sweet yesterday at Diagon Alley, but things just don't feel right between us and I think we should just break things off. See other people or whatever. We can still be friends though, yeah?" Rose explained and Scorpius let out a sigh of relief. He had to play it cool though. He had a feeling Delaney wouldn't be so nice if he found out what he had just been doing. Oops.

"Yeah, of course. I agree with you. I'm sorry about freaking out at you by the way," Scorpius said, trying his best not to smile and chase after Rose right that second.

"It's all good," Delaney said, smiling and giving Scorpius an awkward hug and turning on her heel and walking out of the compartment to go find James.

"Hey!" Delaney yelled, as she almost collided into James as he walked down the hallway with a couple of chocolate frogs in his hand.

"Hi!" James greeted back, smiling back at her, despite the fact that the scene between her and Scorpius kept replaying in his mind and torturing him.

"Do you wanna grab a compartment and talk?" Delaney asked.

"Yeah, sure," James replied, peering his head into the closet compartment. It was empty except for Tegan Jacobs. Naturally. James knew the nice thing to do would be to sit down and start a conversation with the girl as she was all by herself, but he would never reject alone time with Delaney so he kept on walking until he reached a completely empty compartment. He motioned Delaney inside and took a sit closest to the window.

"I just broke up with Scorpius," Delaney blurted out.

"What? I saw you two kissing twenty minutes ago or something," James announced, confused once more. Nothing was making any sense today it seemed.

"I haven't kissed him today and I didn't even speak to him until a minute or so ago," Delaney explained. "Are you sure it was him?"

"I could spot that blonde hair from a mile away. The girl's hair looked a bit different though. Kind of auburn. I figured you'd done something to yours, though. Who do you think it was?" James asked.

"Rose."


End file.
